The Chicago Bears lost their Week 8 contest with the Washington Commanders by way of Jayden Daniels’s epic Hail Mary toss as time expired. As devastating a sequence as it was, though, the Hail Mary was not the worst play of the Bears’ day.
No, that honor goes to the goal line handoff to backup center Doug Kramer Jr. on third-and-goal with the Bears down five points that resulted in a fumble. It was nearly a catastrophic, game-ending sequence that would have lived on lowlight reels forever. Instead Chicago recovered the fumble and punched it in on fourth-and-goal to take the lead, but even days later the decision to entrust the most important play of the game to a backup offensive lineman puzzles the mind.
Speaking to reporters about the call on Thursday, offensive coordinator Shane Waldron didn’t express any remorse about calling that play in that moment and even doubled down.
#Bears OC Shane Waldron says he was confident in his call to hand off to Doug Kramer in the 4th quarter. “Felt confident in that moment in the call, but it didn’t work out.”
Said it wasn’t a clean handoff but doesn’t regret the call in that situation.
— Kaitlin Sharkey (@KRoseSharkey) October 31, 2024
There is always a time to call a handoff to a lineman because it’s awesome and everybody wants to see a big man score. But there are also times that you should definitely not do it and there is an exceptionally strong case to be made that Waldron found nearly the worst possible time to do it.
The Bears had struggled to score points all night, had the ball at the one-yard line in a one-score game, and there was less than a minute left on the clock. The margin for error was extremely slim and calling that play reduces it to zero. On top of all that, with the ball nearly touching the goal line, the Commanders were very much expecting the ball to be handed off. The fact that it was to an offensive lineman was never going to fool the defense. It’s not only hard to grasp why the play was called in context of the score and time, it’s hard to grasp what Chicago thought was going to improve by calling it.
Regardless, the Bears scored and then lost, which was going to be the outcome no matter how that play went.
